Richard Ahnert | In Good Time
Sept 12 – 26

Reception: Sept 12, 3–5 pm
RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca

Presales are open Saturday, Sept 5 @ 10 am, in-person, e-mail and via phone at 613-729-0003. If you would like to preview an artwork before collecting it, please contact the gallery at info@wallspacegallery.ca

Wall Space Gallery is excited to present In Good Time, a new body of work by celebrated oil painter Richard Ahnert. Through his distinctive anthropomorphic characters and carefully constructed narratives, Ahnert considers the spaces between one moment and the next: the waiting, wandering, playing, and observing that occupy our lives but rarely command our attention. His paintings find significance in these intervals, where there is no urgency to arrive and little need for resolution.

In After the Rain, a cat stands atop a makeshift raft, surveying a flooded neighbourhood with a fishing rod in hand and a goldfish bowl at their side. The incongruity of the scene carries Ahnert’s characteristic humour, while the cat’s composure lends the painting a sense of patience and contemplation. In Bouncing Back, a bear sits atop a weathered spring-mounted duck, recalling the simple pleasures of childhood play. The bear’s considerable size against the diminutive toy creates a humorous contrast, while his relaxed expression suggests that there is nowhere else he needs to be.

Ahnert’s animals occupy circumstances that are often improbable, yet their attention remains fixed on the present. Whether floating through a transformed landscape or rediscovering an object associated with childhood, they appear unconcerned with what lies beyond the immediate moment. Their experiences offer an alternative to the familiar impulse to move quickly from one task, place, or experience to the next.

With In Good Time, Ahnert considers the value of allowing time to unfold without insisting upon an immediate destination. Beneath the humour of these paintings is an appreciation for the pauses that give shape to our days—and for the possibility that time spent simply being may be time well spent.

Curator
Haruka Toyoda

Featured works:
The Quiet Hours, Oil on canvas
After the Rain, Oil on canvas